WHITE HOT KISS by Jennifer L. Armentrout

WHITE HOT KISS by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Anyone else wish their high school experience involved a hot demon sitting in front of you in bio class, humming the lyrics of Paradise City, and flirting with you endlessly?

If so, Layla is living out your dreams. WHITE HOT KISS is the first book in JLA’s Dark Elements series and I am pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this young adult fantasy. It is low fantasy, meaning it is set in our contemporary world (and takes place in Washington, D.C.), but features all the fun stuff like angels and demons and shape shifting gargoyles. The first book does an excellent job setting up our expectations for the world and the trajectory of the story, but there are still so many unexpected developments that I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.

As I make my way through JLA’s backlist, I’m learning that I really appreciate the way she creates her characters. Even here, with a young heroine who *very much* embodies what it’s like to be a teenager in the mid-2000s, I still found myself drawn to Layla, her friends, and the unexpected creatures who enter her life. Once I got past some of the outdated language used throughout the book (one thing to always keep in mind when reading backlist titles!), I found myself fully engrossed in this story. I’m now onto the third book and can’t put the series down.

This series feels like how my friends describe watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer is, though I’ve never seen it so I really can’t say for sure. What I can say though is this: if by the end of a book I have a crush on a demon and want to keep a pet snake, you know you’re doing something right as an author.

Also, because I can’t help myself, I made a mood board for this series. Find it here.